Saturday 26 November 2011

Surf Nicaragua

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Surfs up!

1985 saw Sacred Reich emerge from the dust of Arizona to add their riffage to the thrash storm that was whipping itself into a ferocious shape during those metalastic years.
Two releases in particular stood out for me: their Ignorance album and the EP Surf Nicaragua (remember the coffin surfing dude on the latters cover? See above pic). Both these records I bought on *vinyl and believe me, they both made the *vinyl feel like slabs of concrete when you chucked them under the *needle. From opening pounder 'Death Squad' through to the brillaint 'Violent Solutions', the Reich's Ignorance album easily stood alongside offerings by fellow thrashers Nuclear Assault, Exodus, Testament etc.
As for Surf Nicaragua, well it was short but oh so sweet, and after I had got it onto my Walkman (think iPod but more prehistoric) a few years later, my skateboarding soundtrack was complete.
Sadly apart from a few recent stabs at reuniting, Sacred Reich have not come back on the scene as strong as other old acts have but there is a fantastic cd/dvd boxset available featuring both albums mentioned here with extra tracks, plus a dvd that includes the band appearing on the Dynamo Open Air 1989 festival. It really is a must buy for anyone who loves 80's thrash metal.

**NB ~ to any youngters reading this: before we had the gubbins we have now to play music, we used things like vinyl which had to have needles to make them play. Google it!